Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Vanessa Kelly Wants To Know What's Wrong With Bad-girl Heroines

(from usatoday.com
by Vanessa Kelly)

It's New Year's Eve, the perfect time to talk about kicking over the traces and going a little wild. I'm the first to admit to having a soft spot for bad-girl heroines. Let's face it; we're used to bad-boy heroes. The reformed rake, the former delinquent who ends up a cop or a soldier, the vampire who falls in love and regains his soul — we're familiar with those. A man who is a four-square hero but also brings along a dark and dangerous vibe can work out pretty well for the heroine — especially when facing down the villain or, ahem, when between the sheets.

But the same formula doesn't usually work for a female protagonist, and we find ourselves asking the question — just how bad should a heroine be? Some readers, in my experience, do not like the bad-girl heroine, and I've got the e-mails to prove it (courtesy of the heroine of my third book, My Favorite Countess). Manda Collins, historical romance author of the upcoming book Why Earls Fall in Love (Jan. 28), certainly understands this problem, having faced it with one of the heroines in her Ugly Ducklings series:


"Why Earls Fall in Love" by Manda Collins.

"As an author, I loved having the opportunity to redeem Amelia Snow, who had been the nemesis of my Ugly Duckling heroines. But I can quite understand why some readers were reluctant to go along with me on that journey. To make Amelia a credible villain, I had her do some extraordinarily awful things. (Well, not murder, but some serious mean stuff.) Things that were not easily forgiven. As a reader, though, I've enjoyed seeing villains redeemed, and I especially like watching the process by which they are made to atone for their wrongs. It's human nature, I think. But it's romance that allows us to see villains overcome the past and find their HEAs. I love knowing I'm part of a genre that lets even the formerly wicked (and sometimes still wicked) find love."

Overcoming that wicked past usually takes a great deal of strength and personal empowerment, great characteristics for a writer to work with when redeeming the bad girl.


Vanessa Kelly, author of "Secrets for Seducing a Royal Bodyguard."

But not all bad-girl heroines are bad in the sense of mean or villainous. Secrets for Seducing a Royal Bodyguard, the first book in my new Renegade Royals series, features a heroine who likes to stray a bit onto the wild side. Not that Lady Vivien Shaw has a bad heart. In fact, she'd be the first person to jump in front of a moving carriage to rescue a puppy. But she's also a woman who enjoys a good party, two (maybe three) glasses of champagne, and she's not averse to a little lighthearted flirtation now and again, either.

The behavior that tends to land Vivien in hot water, though, is her penchant for high-stakes card games. You might even call her a card shark, which definitely puts her in bad-girl territory by Regency standards, and possibly even by the standards of some modern readers. But creating a bad girl who is also a sympathetic heroine is just the kind of challenge many writers relish, including Valerie Bowman, the author of Secrets of a Scandalous Marriage"

"Secrets of a Scandalous Marriage" by Valerie Bowman.

"Ooh, I do so love a bad-girl heroine! All three of the heroines in my Secret Brides historical romance trilogy are ostensibly bad girls. One of them is the authoress of an exceedingly scandalous pamphlet entitled Secrets of a Wedding Night. One of them tries to run off to Gretna Green, twice. And one of them is in the Tower of London for supposedly murdering her dastardly husband. They each had their own type of bad-girl persona, but in the end, they're really not all that bad. They just wanted to love and be loved. What I especially love about bad girls is that they don't lie down and wait to be rescued. They forge ahead and make their own way in the world and if someone happens to think they're bad while they're at it, so be it. Go bad girls!"

It's that fierce insistence on rescuing themselves that makes bad-girl heroines such intriguing characters and holds such a powerful allure for both reader and writer. I think that's especially true in historical romance, and Theresa Romain, the author of Season for Scandal, tells us why:

"Season for Scandal" by Theresa Romain.

"Bad-girl heroines can be challenging to write in historical romance because of the social restrictions of the time. A woman would probably have lost her social power — one of the only types of power women had — if she rebelled much against propriety before marriage. After marriage, she had a little more freedom, but there were always So Many Rules. As an author, I welcome those rules, because they make writing historical romance distinct. The expectations of the time period are intertwined with the way characters think and feel and behave. But it's also fun to explore what would happen to brave women who pushed against those social rules, seeking greater freedom. They might have a difficult time, but in romance, we can make sure they get their HEA in the end."

Most of us have gone off the rails at one time or another, or rebelled against rules and restrictions that seemed pointless or unfair. Rebelling and making mistakes is what makes us human. In fiction, mistakes coupled with that universal quest for redemption helps authors create believable characters. Personally, I'd love to see more heroines walk on the wild side, make mistakes, get in trouble and then fight their way through to their HEA. That sort of heroine's journey can provide an exciting and sometimes unpredictable read that challenges our expectations about women and the roles they play in romance novels.

Besides, why should the bad boys have all the fun?

Happy New Year, everyone!

I'm giving away a print copy of Secrets for Seducing a Royal Bodyguard to one person who comments here on bad-girl heroines.

Here's the blurb for Secrets for Seducing a Royal Bodyguard (coming Jan. 7):

Accomplished spy Aden St. George prefers to stay away from the frivolous ton, especially after the way his mother was used by the Prince Regent. But his latest mission compels him to guard unconventional, vibrant Lady Vivien Shaw. Rescuing her from kidnappers was easy. Resisting her beauty is not. Duty demands he keep an eye on her—and naturally, his lips soon follow. For someone who views entanglements as a weakness, this is pure, delicious folly…

Though grateful for Aden's help, Vivien has secrets she must keep hidden. Yet with her abductors still at large, she needs Aden's protection almost as much as she craves his touch…

Vanessa Kelly is an award-winning author of Regency-set historical romance. Her new series, The Renegade Royals, hit the shelves in November with the introductory novella Lost in a Royal Kiss. Secrets for Seducing a Royal Bodyguard is book one in the series. Find out more at www.vanessakellyauthor.com.

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